MONKLANDS voters turned out in their tens of thousands at polling stations across Airdrie and Coatbridge to contribute to a record referendum turnout.

North Lanarkshire registered the highest turnout in its history of 84.4 per cent, almost identical to the overall Scottish picture; the 3.6million ballots from nearly 4.3m people on the electoral register made the percentage a UK record.

Alex Neil MSP, of the Yes campaign, called the level of engagement “brilliant”, and No campaigner Tom Clarke MP agreed that it was “one of the most heartening aspects of the referendum.”

Mr Neil said: “The record turnout is a tremendous thing that Scotland should be proud of — it’s historic in the UK and shows how politically engaged people are.

“People became more aware during the campaign, and our party has had a huge increase in membership.”

Mr Clarke said: “The engagement of people who perhaps were never involved in politics, but were motivated to work in support of their campaign, is a credit to both sides.

“I will do what I can to harness the continued interest and indeed have already started engaging with constituents who voted Yes and No.

“I’ll continue with this in the coming weeks because I want to see people take an active interest in politics, which can only improve our democracy.”

In charge of ensuring all 226,883 ballot papers were counted during a seven-hour operation at Ravenscraig sports centre was counting officer Gavin Whitefield, the chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council.

He spent referendum day visiting polling stations across the authority with divisional police commander Nelson Telfer, then oversaw the overnight count.

Mr Whitefield said: “We’d anticipated a very high turnout, in excess of 80 per cent, so we had a maximum number of voters at any polling station and had tested the count model at the European elections.

“It’s the largest turnout for which I’ve been returning officer and this area was right on the national average, which reflects very well on participation and the interest it’s generated.

“We’d anticipated a 2-3am declaration; it took longer in the end, but that was the case across Scotland.

“It’s certainly part of history and like all elections, it was a privilege to be part of that. Everybody involved in North Lanarkshire contributed to a fantastic team effort to make sure everything was done properly.”